Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c9.s2.4

c9.s2.4

Among the early Śāntara kings are mentioned the brothers Śrīkēśi and Jayakēśi, and the son of the former, Raṇakēśi. We have the Chānta king Jagēśi in Sk 283 ruling the whole of Sāntalige under the Rāshṭrakūṭa king Nṛipatunga Amōghavarsha. He may therefore be placed in about 830. But a connected genealogy begins with Vikrama-Śāntara, who had the titles Kandukāchārya and Dāna-vinōda. He is credited with forming the Sāntalige Thousand into a separate kingdom, of which the boundaries were the Sula river on the south, Tavanasi on the west, and Bandige on the north. No eastern boundary is named (Nr 35). In about 920 a Śāntara king, whose name is not given, was defeated in a battle with the Nolambas, and slain and beheaded by the Ganga prince, the son of Pilduvipati or Pṛithuvipati (Gd 4). In 1062 and 1066 Vīra-Śāntara and his son Bhujabala-Śāntara are said (Nr 47, 59) to have freed the kingdom from those who had no claim to it. The reference may be to certain Chālukya princes, Bijjarasa and his brother Gōna-Rāja, who are stated (in Sa 109 *bis*) to be in full enjoyment of the Sāntalige-nāḍ in 1042. A glowing description is given of the fertility of the province, which was such that hunger was unknown there, and grass, firewood, and water were so abundant that many learned Brāhmans were induced to make it their abode. The Sāntalige-nāḍ, it says, had been ruled by many, but among them none was more famous than Gōna-Rāja. He established an agrahāra for the Brāhmans at Andhāsura (still so called, near Anantapur). Andhāsura is named among one of the first conquests of Jinadatta.